| Dear Madam, Many
friends of my late commanding officer will bring to you in this your hour of trial and
sorrow many reminders of your sons great qualities, but with all the respect in my nature
to the mother of one of England's greatest leaders of men, I beg to inform you there are
none outside his home circle of friends who will always remember him better than we, his
children.
He was our father, both at play and work, at fighting he
was above all our leader. Our wants and pleasures were his first thought day in and day
out, we became first in his mind before all things. He taught us all we knew with an
unexampled sense of brave leadership, which at all times carried us to victory, never once
did he give an order to any of us which he was not prepared to carry out himself. I
personally have seen him in what we know as "tight corners", I have seen him
when the situation was more than critical, it has looked almost hopeless at times of late,
but with that well known calm of his, which carried with it coolness and confidence to all
around him he has brought us through.
There are places which will go down to history, the
names of which I must not mention, he with a few picked men of my battalion has held them
to the very last moment, while the remainder of the battalion has got away to safety,
always the first to lead and the last to leave the place which was vital to our line
remaining intact and never once did they get through our line.
The C.O. asked for and obtained from his boy's a little
more than the best, whilst his maxim to us was "Smile on, fight on and stick it"
and no matter what the duty or how hard the conditions, never did they finish that duty
without a song on their lips, only too happy to please their beloved leader. They loved
him because he was always just and fair in his condemnation of fault, they loved him for
his kindly thought in all things appertaining to their welfare and best of all they loved
him for leading and being with them in action. When things grew hot we have known him use
the rifle like his men and even bomb the enemy like any of the boys. His name was on the
lips of those who had only been with him a matter of days, they all knew him for what he
was, a fighter first and last and a great leader all the time. My Colonel inspired
coolness and self determination with the spirit to win, to all of us, we shall never meet
his like again.
Dear Madam, your trial and loss is great, but England's
loss is greater, our C.O. led my dear old battalion, we know he could have directed larger
forces, therefor I beg to state that our England's loss is even greater than yours, but
today our thoughts are with the mother of our leader, your sorrow is our sorrow, your loss
is our loss, but our pride and memory of him will be ours always.
Trusting these few lines will not pain the brave mother
of the bravest of sons, please accept the salute of
Yours Faithfully
J.C.Pearce A/R.S.M.
B.E.F. 9.4.18.
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